6 Days

For a few years now I have felt that we are in a waiting room, a wilderness, the desert even. God is teaching us great things while we wait on Him to bring the support we need to go to Spain to plant churches. I have cried out to Him in so many ways. I have pounded on the doors of Heaven, I have reminded Him that He can act swiftly and that He should, because souls in Spain are on the line. I have beseeched Him to listen not to my prayers, but the prayers of so many others. Our partners, and little old ladies in churches where we’ve spoken, are praying that God will bring more support soon.

But He has His reasons. His timing may be painful at this moment, but it is perfect.

Here is someone who knows about waiting on God: Moses. In Exodus 24, just before God gives Moses the tablets of stone with the inscription of the law, Moses, Aaron, Aaron’s sons and 70 men who lead Israel go up to the mountain of God and they see Him. Did you catch that? Verse 10 says, “and they saw the God of Israel. There was under his feet as it were a pavement of sapphire stone, like the very heaven for clearness.”

Oh my. This, just days after God warns quite a few times that if an Israelite even touches the mountain of God, he will die. But verse 11 says, “And he did not lay his hand on the chief men of the people of Israel; they beheld God, and ate and drank.”

And then God calls Moses even closer. I think, after a party like that, anyone would be eager to spend more time with God. So Moses goes up to the mountain of God and a cloud covers because God’s glory is so great.

The glory of the Lord dwelt on Mount Sinai, and the cloud covered it six days. And on the seventh day he called to Moses out of the midst of the cloud. Now the appearance of the glory of the Lord was like a devouring fire on the top of the mountain in the sight of the people of Israel. Moses entered the cloud and went up on the mountain. And Moses was on the mountain forty days and forty nights.

God throws a big party, doesn’t lay a (perfectly holy and therefore perfectly justified) hand on the Israelite leaders. God invites Moses to stay after (my paraphrase). He closes the curtain behind Moses, and everyone is wondering what God and Moses are doing together on that mountain covered by a devouring fire. Except, it appears they’re not together.

It appears that God makes Moses wait 6 days, surrounded by God’s glory on the mountain, before calling to Him from inside the cloud.

May we recognize what a privilege it is to even set foot upon the mountain of God, and may we wait so well.